A RAISIN IN THE SUN

The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was first staged in 1959, a time
when both Black consciousness and feminism belonged to the land of fantasy and fairy
tales. It was, to say the very least, a carrier of revolutionary ideas and ideals.
The play revolves around the Youngers, a typical African-American family of the
period between World War II and the radical 60s who lived in a ghetto in Chicagos
Southside. It chronicles the Youngers struggles to find their place and purpose in this world
without destroying the delicate relationships within their family.
The Youngers cramped apartment was the only setting where all the events of the
play unfolded. This though was not a hindrance but even contributed to the sense of unity in
the play.
Act One opens with the family waiting for the check Mama would be receiving as
payment from her deceased husbands insurance policy. We learn that Walter Lee, her son,
had asked her repeatedly to entrust the money to him. He wants a better life for his wife,
Ruth, and son, Travis, than the life in their apartment building where they have to wake up
practically at the crack of dawn just to use the communal bathroom. He found no hope in his
remaining a chauffeur all his life, so he was seduced into promising an acquaintance to go
into business with him. Having no savings of his own, he does all that he can to get the
money, even to the point of arguing with Mama.
Beneatha, Walter Lees sister, found this distasteful. After all, it was Mamas money
and not his. Walter argued that Beneatha shouldnt expect Mama to keep some of the
money to send her to med school, which he found frivolous. In his words: If you so crazy
bout messing round with sick peoplethen go be a nurse like other womenor just get
married and be quiet...
Mama learns about the hurtful exchange of words between her two children from
Ruth, Walter Lees wife. She then equates Walter Lee and Beneatha to the lone plant she
keeps in a small pot on a window sill. The plant hardly gets any sunlight and yet it still
manages to survive. Her children are like that, she says. They have spirit enough to survive
even if they were forced to go on for so long without so many things. As mamas talk ends,
Ruth faints to the floor in a mixture of physical fatigue, growing hopelessness about her
mariage gone cold, and her soon-to-be-discovered pregnancy.
The check arrives the next day, and Walter Lee again tries to persuade Mama to give
him the money to invest in a liquor store his acquaintance (a certain Willie Harris who his
whole family distrusts) wants to open with him and another friend (Bobo). He flies into a
rage when mama refuses him. He then turns away form Ruth when she tells him they need
to talk. It is Mama who tells Walter Lee that his wife is pregnant and in her opinion is
considering an abortion. Walter Lee refuses to believe that his wife is capable of even
thinking about such a thing. Mama urges her son to ask Ruth not to go through with it, but
Walter is unable to speak.
Act Twos main features were Beneathas two beaux. The first is George who
belongs to an affluent Black family. If only for this reason, Beneathas family favors
George, but as the scenes featuring him proceed, we see less and less to like in him. For
one, in a moment of exasperation with Beneatha, he complains about the atmosphere that
is part of her routine. Youre a nice looking girl, he tells Beneatha. Thats all you need,
honey...

Guys arent going to go for the atmospheretheyre going to go for what they see. Apart
from this obvious chauvinistic crap, there is a big possibility that readers of the script wont
be able to tell George is Black unless they are told. He is a Colored White if there is such a
term, a man who takes pains to become as White as he can possibly be, given the color of
his skin. If there was a way one can pay to change his race, this man would probably be first
in line to get it.
Then there is Asagai, an idealist from Nigeria who went overseas for an education he
hopes he can use to help his people. He reflects Beneathas hopes and aspirations, the
ones that are not only for herself, but for other people not as fortunate as she is. He is such
that even when Beneathas faith in her future was crumbling, he remained a believer that
they will pull through.
Asagai is also Beneathas tie to Africa, the motherland that she has never seen.
Through him, she felt she learned what she needed to learn about Africa.
In a dialogue with her family, Mama announces that she had put some of her money
on a house as downpayment. The problem is the houses location: Clybourne Park, a
neighborhood whose residents are all White. Ruth warms up to the idea of a house of their
own even if it was in Clybourne Park, but Walter Lee becomes furious. Because Mama spent
money on that house, he thought there was nothing left over for him to invest in his friends
business. Through this act, Mama killed his dreams, he says.
It turns out that Mama did not spend all the money for the downpayment for the
house. She entrusts her remaining money to Walter Lee. He is supposed to deposit part of it
in the bank for Beneathas education, and the rest, he can deposit in his name and to do with
as he pleases. It is this unexpected act that heals Walters relationships with his mother and
wife. Fred of his bitterness, he returns to the old Walter Lee who had a little hope in his heart
to keep him going. Seeing that her relationship with her husband isnt entirely hopeless, Ruth
decides against the abortion.
Mrs. Johnson, their neighbor, visits them and congratulates them because she heard that
they had a house to move into. Her sincerity though is dubious, especially when she tells the
family about the bombings that have targeted Black families who have tried moving into
White areas. There was more glee than warning in her voice when she was doing this.
And indeed, after Mrs. Johnsons departure, Beneatha couldnt help but comment, If
there are two things we, as a people, have got to overcome, one is the Ku Klux Klanand
the othe other is Mrs. Johnson. Amiri Baraka echoed this in his essay, A Critical
Reevaluation: A Raisin in the Suns Enduring Passion: There is no such thing as a White
folks neighborhood except to racists and to those submitting to racism.
It is one thing to face discrimination in the eye of a White man, but it is another to
face it in the likes of Mrs. Johnson who not only knows her place being Black (which she
disclaimed, but nevertheless demonstrated), but also resented people of her kind who dare
overstep their bounds.
A Mr. Linder comes to visit the Youngers as if to confirm Mrs. Johnsons fears.
Mr. Linder introduces himself as the chairman of Clybourne Parks so-called welcome
committee. Upon hearing about the Youngers plan to move into their neighborhood, Mr.
Linder saw a need to pay a visit to the family, for a dialogue. He goes on and on under the
guise of goodwill, saying that there is such a great need for unsertanding between people
like
the Youngers and White folk like him, and the only answer is to listen to each other. He then
started to make his point, telling the Youngers that the people of Clybourne Park are not
used
to the idea of living with people of a different background from their own. What he really
meant was, of course, was that his people isnt used to the idea of living with people of a

different skin color. He then informs the Youngers that their association was ready to offer
the Black family the return of their downpayment money plus an extra amount on the
condition that they abandon their plans of moving into Clybourne Park. In a less than polite
way, Walter Lee asks Mr. Linder to get out of their apartment.
Shortly afterwards, Bobo, he friend Walter Lee was supposed to go into business
with, comes for a visit. He informs Walter Lee that Willie Harris, the man they entrusted
their money to, was gone, and he took their money with him. Walter Lee mourns for the
money that was made out of (his) fathers flesh. Mama finds out that not only did Walter
Lee give Willie Harris the money she had given him, but he also gave Harris the money
intended for Beneathas education.
In Act Three, Walter Lee calls Mr. Linder as a broken man, intending to accept the
latters offer. But he realizes that his parents have brought him up with more dignity than to
stoop to that level. With renewed conviction, he announces to Mr. Linder that he intends to
move his family to Clybourne Park regardless of what their welcoming committee thinks.
As the movers start to take their furniture, Mama survey their apartment one last time.
Although there was a back garden waiting for her in their new home, she takes her little
potted plant, intending it to become a physical reminder of the kind of spirit that is in her
children.
Walter Lee is easily the embodiment of every ambitious Black man who has spent
what seems like several lifetimes working as someone elses servant. At some point, a man
such as Walter Lee realizes that servitude should not even be considered a job, much less a
career, and he starts dreaming for more. For something that not only would provide a better
future for him and his family, but fulfillment and pride as well. But given the forces which
work against him (bigotry, lack of education), he becomes a fish swimming upstream. A
weaker man might break, and it seemed Walter Lee was being pulled into that, but he
perseveres, finding that in spiteor maybe because ofwho he is, he does have some
dignity inside him which refuses to let him bow down to the people who oppress him. At the
beginning of the play, he thought that money makes the world go around, but in the end,
dignity and pride became his whole world. These gave him the strength and courage to
move
into what most people of that time thought of as a forbidden zone for a man of his color.
Where Walter Lees biggest hindrance is his being Black, Beneatha has two
things working for her: her being Black and her being a woman. First, I believe she had to
resolve some of her confusion about her identity as a Black youth. Beneatha employed the
help of Asagai, who is from Nigeria. Her own family had not seen Africa for five
generations, and with her link to someone who actually grew up there, Beneatha hoped to
create ties with her Motherland in some form or another. But gathering from the forceful
way she accosted Asagai after finding out that he hails from Nigeria, this was a largely
unheard of thing at that time. Therefore, the efforts of a Black youth to find his identity such
as Beneatha did through gathering knowledge about Africa was a revolutionary idea as well.
Learning to be more proud about her Black heritage gave Beneatha more confidence
in herself as a woman. In the past, she was forced to conform to the Western ideal of beauty
which included straight hair, something which is not natural to an African American like her.
Acquiring even the most basic understanding of the standards of beauty of her native Africa
gave her a frame of mind which refused to let her apologize for her natural looks. She
stopped straightening her hair and let people see her with the kind of hair she was born with.
Although it was an unpopular decision (at that time, extravagant Afros had not become a fad
yet), she stood by it.
Beneatha had dreams for herself, one of which was becoming a doctora virtually
unheard of thing in those times for a woman, much less a Black woman. Although many of

the people around her (the men, especiallyamong them Walter Lee and George, told her
to give up her dream, she stood her ground. Without her knowing it, even though the term
wasnt born yet, she embodied the feminists fight.
I believe Ruth and Mama can, in the surface, be considered the most universal
members of the Younger family. They can be either Black or White, or any color in
between, if the reader is given just their general situations. Ruth, of whom the playwright
prophesized that in a few years, will be known among her people as a settled woman, is
your typical housewife whose only purpose in life is to take care of her husband and
children. Mama is your typical matriarch who at any opportunity tries to control her family
with the styles of a tyrant.